WhiteStar

I'm an Optimist.

A couple days ago I said that I expected to finish Jess over the weekend. Unless I got sidetracked.

HAH!

I did finish the body. Here's how far I got with the sleeves...

What sidetracked me?

1) Cleaning the house. Over the past 11 weekends I'd been gone 9. I have 10 Samoyeds, several of which are blowing coat. You do the math. It's not a pretty picture.

2) Evaluating puppies. A good friend brought her litter of three 8 week old puppies down for me to look at. She needed help deciding which one to keep. Can you believe I FORGOT to take a picture of the puppies playing with 4 month old Babe?

3) Knitting and then ripping out the Butterfly sleeves - see the entry on October 23 for the gory details.

4) Then on Sunday I was swatching for the Total Maze Cardigan by Earthheart Designs.

I've had some Interlacements Paris yarn in the Persian colorway that I've been wanting to use for this. I picked up a few skeins of Auracania Nature Wool the other day and I think they go together well.

5) And I was swatching for Earnshaw. And re-swatching. And swatching again.

Have you ever knit with Kochoran?

I'd consider it a bulky wieght. A few years ago I made the GirlFriend Jacket from Sally Melville's Knit Stitch book in Kochoran. Size 10.5 needles. 3 sts/inch. That's a bulky weight, no? Came out *gorgeous*.

Well Earnshaw wants Kocharan to be knitted on size 10 needles at a worsted weight gauge, 4 sts/inch. I tried 9s. Then 8s. I was close at that point and not willing to try 7s. They are just too small to comfrotably knit this yarn on. I haven't decided whether to rewrite the pattern for 3 sts/inch and knit on 10s or use the 8s and just end up with a slightly larger sweater.

6) Then I joined the Red Sox Knitalong over at Knitting Wizard.

I am not really a big baseball fan although I do enjoy the playoffs and the series. And I'm not a Red Sox fan although I was thrilled to see them beat the Yankees. I usually cheer for the (Brooklyn) Dodgers, the Orioles, the Rockies or the Diamond Backs.

But I did have a pair of long unfinished red socks in my basket that need completing. If this gets me going on them it's a Good Thing, right? Did an inch during the game Saturday night.

7) And last but not least there is this...

This is Vivienne/Xia Yang. My brother and his wife are adopting her from China. She is about 14 months old in this picture and will be about 18 months old when they go to China to get her in a couple months. I think she needs a hand knit sweater to welcome her to this country, don't you? How about Haiku in lavendar wool/cashmere/silk? So I was swatching that too.

That's all from the high plains today. That's enough don't you think?

Anne at 11:42 AM